Whatsapp New Privacy Policy – Unfair to Users but Still Legal

Whatsapp is not just an online chat platform, it’s a habit now. It always has made so many big promises regarding safeguarding privacy, whether through the name of end-to-end encryption security system or no compromise with privacy after the acquisition of Facebook.

The recent announcement about new privacy policy of whatsapp gave a huge shock to its users. As per the policy, whatsapp will have now all the authorities to share customer information with Facebook, in order to provide their users accurate ads and better friend suggestions. With this authority, they will give permission to third parties that they can communicate with their users. Whatsapp has given a time period of 30 days to its users to read the privacy policy carefully and make decisions accordingly. The change in policy is also legal so no one can raise an issue.

Be careful while agreeing to new terms and conditions on WhatsApp – Messaging app’s new terms of service. Rather than clicking “agree” blindly, press the smaller “read more” option below.

Once You Agree the new policy of Whatsapp, it has all the rights to share your given information with anyone.

Have you read that blog post that was published by Whatsapp after it was acquired by Facebook. They have clearly written that the privacy policy will remain unchanged, The old policy was safe and user-friendly. At that time, they only collect user’s phone number, device information and the contact numbers of their friends list. And there were clear indications in that policy that no information would be shared with anyone, not even with third party persons or any commercial or business purpose.

Important Data from Whatsapp New Privacy Policy

Your mobile number, profile name, status position and the last seen status

When you communicate with them regarding customer service, they have all the authorities to share that email id with other third parties. There is no promise given about not sharing of that information

All the device data starting from your hardware model, operating system information, browser information, IP address, mobile network information and many more things

Location Data

The information like your data or content that you share via whatsapp web

The group information and data of that group

WhatsApp’s changes to privacy maybe unfair, but is legal

The new privacy policy by Whatsapp may be unfair to its users but is legal
After the sudden changes in whatsapp privacy policy, they have all the rights to share your given information to others. This is totally legal because whatsapp has sent a message to its users to agree the new privacy policy. If they have not sent this message, it would be illegal. So now it’s up to user to agree the new privacy policy or not.

But, the last question – How many of us read the privacy policy? We just tick the right mark and agree what they say. Let’s see now, how much third party mails and messages we will get after accepting the new privacy policy of whatsapp.

Don’t worry if you’ve already accepted those new terms, however — you’ve still got 30 days to opt out. Head to the app’s settings menu, and then press the account tab. From there, you can unchecked the box reading “Share my account info” to stop providing Facebook with your user data.

Sanjay Patel

Sanjay Patel is a technical content writer as well as a digital marketing strategist. He loves to write on latest technologies and gadgets. You can find Sanjay on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.